FARABA BANTA WOODLANDS
We spent the entire day in and around the village of
Faraba Banta which is found on the main road out of Banjul heading eastward
towards Tendaba.
It was hot and sunny as usual but a nice breeze was
blowing as we left the hotel at 7:30am. We drove through the busy suburbs of
Banjul before stopping just east of Faraba Banta. We took a short walk to look
for Brown-necked Parrots, of which we saw about 7, unfortunately we saw them in
flight. We had extended views of a perched Long-crested Eagle, the wind was
blowing the crest to and fro as we were trying to take pictures of it. On the
return trip to the bus we saw African
Hawk-Eagle (2), Gabar Goshawk, Shikra and another parrot.
We then drove back into the village and turned onto a
track into some open woodland. Our walk last 3 hours and although we did some a
lot birds we spent a lot of time just getting brief glimpses of the good ones.
For example it took us 30 minutes tracking down a Sulphur-breasted Bush-Shrike
but all we got was flight views. The same happen to several other species
however we did a good mornings birding.
We ate our picnic lunch under the shade of a makeshift
shelter built by one of the locals who served cold drinks as we ate. During
lunch we saw White-helmet Shrike,
Yellow-fronted Canary, Velliot’s Barbet (briefly), Splendid Sunbird, Western
Olivaceous Warbler, Melodious Warbler and a few birds of prey: Brown-Snake Eagle, Beaudouin’s Snake Eagle,
Bateleur and an Osprey.
Our afternoon walk produced less than the morning
although we did get good views of African
Golden Oriole, Bruce’s Green Pigeon and we had brief glimpses of Stone Partridge, Greater Honey Guide,
Green Wood-hoopoe and a number of common sunbirds.
We called it day at 4:30pm, the heat didn’t seem to
subside and we were all tired, so we returned to the hotel and got ready for
dinner and a cold beer.
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